6. Mapping your background to this career area
Customer Insights & Market Research
Engineering, Math/Stats
Related
Skills
- Analytical thinking
- Process and procedural thinking
- Mathematical skills
- Problem solving skills
- Ability to model and simulate
- Systems thinking
- Invention and innovation mindset
POSSIBLE MAPPING TO THIS CAREER AREA
- If you have a background in the “TEM” part of STEM, your analytical and quantitative skills will serve you will for working in this career area.
- Even if you prefer to pursue the more qualitative and behavioral side of this career area, your analytical skills will be very valuable in helping you to measure, analyze and draw insights from qualitative studies of customers.
- If you have a technology background, you might (or might not!) find it interesting to do insights and research work in technology oriented sectors (software, consumer electronics, telecom industrial products, logistics).
Natural/Hard Sciences
Related
Skills
- Analytical thinking
- Knowledge of physical/natural systems
- Problem solving skills
- Ability to measure, distill, draw conclusions
- Research and inquiry skills
POSSIBLE MAPPING TO THIS CAREER AREA
- If you have a background in the “S” part of STEM, your science training would be very well-aligned with work in this career area which ultimately involves conducting research on people or systems (markets). It’s about measuring, studying, understanding, and drawing valuable insights.
- Depending on your specific background in science (biology? chemistry? health science? …) you might consider doing insights and market research in a sector aligned with your prior experiences, e.g. if you studied health sciences you might consider working as an insights manager in the healthcare sector.
Behavioral Sciences, Social Sciences (Ethnography, Anthropology, Political Science, Economics, …) and Humanities
Related
Skills
- Analytical thinking
- Critical thinking & reasoning
- Knowledge of human behavior
- Knowledge of human systems
- Problem solving skills
- Ability to measure, distill, draw conclusions
- Research & inquiry skills
- Making sense of complexity and diversity (in attitudes, preferences, behaviors)
POSSIBLE MAPPING TO THIS CAREER AREA
- If your background falls within human or science sciences your training is directly applicable to many aspects of this career area. Why? Because you have knowledge and skills in understanding people and their behavior in particular contexts (e.g. individual behavior and behavior in groups, families, societies, economies, etc.)
- Customer insights is about studying and understanding the consumer preferences, attitudes and decision making. Beyond customers, professionals in this career area also do insights work related to employee behavior and citizen/voter behavior.
- Consumer research also now involves techniques like eye-tracking, brain imaging, and other physiological measurement in which a behavioral science (or neuroscience ) background can be very relevant.
Business
Related
Skills
- Analytical thinking
- Problem solving skills
- Project management skills
- Knowledge about branding, marketing, sales and customers
- Knowledge about product development and business services
- Skills in finance, accounting
- Entrepreneurial mindset
POSSIBLE MAPPING TO THIS CAREER AREA
- If you have studied business or general management, your understanding of the foundations of markets, products and services, and commercial activities provides a solid foundation for most career areas within the pathway of Marketing, Branding & Sales.
- If you have strength in the commercial side of business – marketing, sales, branding — then this provides additional knowledge skills useful in this career area.
- If you are coming from the more analytical side of business – finance, accounting, business economics, business intelligencer/analytics – your quantitative and analytical abilities will be particularly valuable in doing quantitative customer and market research.
Design, Arts, Architecture, Media and Other Creative Backgrounds
Related
Skills
- Creative thinking skills and methods
- Critical thinking
- Skills in “making”
- Knowledge of principles of design
- Knowledge about human visual perception
POSSIBLE MAPPING TO THIS CAREER AREA
- If you are coming from a creative background, there are many ways to leverage your knowledge and skills in the world of Customer Insights & Market Research – particularly in roles focusing on studying customers and their behavior to drive the design/re-design of products and services.
- Creative work in the area of CX/UX/Service Design mixes the study of customer experiences (to reveal insights) with design to use insights to redesign experiences to drive customer satisfaction. Great insights, great design, great products and services. So creative people are important members of CX/UX/Service Design teams as well as product development teams.